Jack Brook
Brown University
DAVID R. SCHWEISBERG MEMORIAL SCHOLARSHIP
Sponsored by the Schweisberg Family; presented by David’s brother, Matthew Schweisberg

Only a college junior, Jack has already worked for the Santiago Times and the Jerusalem Post.  In his essay, he wrote about how a dispute over the construction of Latin America’s largest dam split the residents of the Chilean village of Caimanes.  Some opted for a cash settlement from a major copper mining company while others held out for the promise of clean water.  Proficient in Spanish, Jack is a senior staff writer for the Brown Daily Herald.


Cecilie Kallestrup
Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism
REUTERS FELLOWSHIP
Sponsored by Reuters and funded by the Scripps Howard Foundation; presented by Mike Williams, Global Enterprise Editor, Reuters

Before arriving in the U.S. as a Fulbright Scholar, Cecilie worked in radio, TV, web and print in her native Denmark and elsewhere.  Having covered the Arab Spring for Gulf News in the United Arab Emirates, she is fascinated by the infinite diversity of Muslim culture, as typified by the female matriarchy of the Minangkabau of the West Sumantran highlands of Indonesia, the subject of her essay.  Cecilie has an OPC Foundation fellowship in the Reuters bureau in Nairobi.


Adriana Carranca Correa
Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism
HARPER’S MAGAZINE SCHOLARSHIP in memory of I.F.STONE
Endowed by John R. MacArthur and the Pierre F. Simon Charitable Trust; presented by Rick MacArthur, publisher, Harper’s Magazine

Having already reported from more than a dozen countries on four continents in three languages, Adriana, a native of Brazil, is now acquiring multimedia skills. In her essay, she wrote about the complications posed by the reintegration of former boy soldiers kidnapped as children by the LGA in Uganda.  Fluent in English, Portuguese and Spanish, she has a master’s degree from the London School of Economics and an OPC Foundation fellowship with Reuters bureau in Brussels.


Elizabeth Whitman
Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism
IRENE CORBALLY KUHN SCHOLARSHIP
Endowed by the Scripps Howard Foundation; presented by Jack Howard-Potter of the Pamela Howard Family Foundation

As a reporter for nearly two years in Jordon, Elizabeth witnessed increasing levels of sexual harassment as women there gained more access to public spaces, the subject of her essay.  With a B.A. in Middle East history from Columbia, she intends to return to the region with a greater expertise in science, health and environment.  Proficient in Arabic and spoken Mandarin, she is also a classical violist.  She has an OPC Foundation fellowship with the GroundTruth Project in Jerusalem.


Suman Naishadham
University of Missouri
H.L. STEVENSON FELLOWSHIP
Funded by the Gamsin family and sponsored by family and friends; presented by OPC Foundation treasurer Steve Swanson, NY Botanical Garden

Having spent a year as a freelancer and staff reporter in India, Suman is fascinated by the differences in local and foreign coverage and how that plays out in the digital age.  An NYU grad, she wrote about Chikur Balaji, the so-called visa temple, where young Indians pray for H-1B visa approval, the program that allows highly skilled foreign professionals to work in the U.S.  Bilingual in Spanish and English with some proficiency in Urdu and Italian, she has an OPC Foundation fellowship in the Reuters bureau in Mexico City.


Isabel Debré
Brown University
STAN SWINTON FELLOWSHIP
Endowed by the Swinton Family; presented by John Daniszewki, Editor at Large for Standards, The Associated Press

Isabel described how the president of the influential Secular Club at the American University of Beirut made the group a formidable political force in Lebanon, a country grappling with the uncomfortable reality that governing by sectarian quotas split among 11 of the 18 official sects has been a failure.  A senior at Brown University, she also studied Arabic in Jordan and now has an OPC Foundation fellowship in the Associated Press bureau in Jerusalem.


Scott Squires
University of Texas at Austin
EMANUEL R. FREEDMAN SCHOLARSHIP
Endowed by family; presented by Alix Freedman, Manny’s daughter and Ethics Editor, Reuters

Born in Cyprus and raised in the Philippines and Saudi Arabia, Scott renewed his interest in Mexico where he once worked at the Oaxaca Times.  In his essay, he wrote about the changing migration patterns in Mexico for Central American migrants trying to reach the U.S. border.  With a B.A. in photojournalism from UT, he is now pursuing a double masters in global policy and journalism.  Fluent in Spanish, he has an OPC Foundation fellowship with Reuters in Buenos Aires.


Micah Danney
CUNY Graduate School of Journalism
THEO WILSON SCHOLARSHIP
Sponsored by donations from family and friends; presented by Allen Alter, OPC Foundation

A multimedia journalist, Micah’s main focus is the Middle East.  A journalism major and graduate of Stonybrook University, he spent last summer at the Times of Israel where he met Issa Amro, the subject of his essay.  A controversial figure in the city of Hebron, Amro preaches a non-violent solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but is still threatened by legal challenges from both sides.  Micah has an OPC Foundation fellowship with the GroundTruth Project in Jerusalem.


Olivia Carville
Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism
ROY ROWAN SCHOLARSHIP
Endowed by family, friends and admirers; presented by Roy’s son, Marc Roy Rowan

A New Zealand native, Olivia was a junior reporter when the Christchurch earthquake struck in 2011.  As part of the follow-up to her award-winning coverage, she went to China to interview the Chinese parents who lost their only children that day, the subject of her essay.  Now focused on business and economic reporting, she is a graduate of the University of Canterbury and has a diploma in journalism from the Auckland University of Technology.


Amelia Nierenberg
Yale University
FLORA LEWIS FELLOWSHIP
Endowed by the Pierre F. Simon Charitable Trust; presented by Jackie Albert-Simon, Flora’s friend

Although Amelia has experience as a reporter in Israel and Lebanon, she chose to write about a domestic topic - a support group for mothers of opioid addicts in rural Pennsylvania, a story she covered for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Graduating this year with both a B.A. and M.A. in modern history, she is the opinion editor of the Yale Daily News. She is fluent in French and has an OPC Foundation fellowship at the Associated Press bureau in Dakar.


Madison Dudley
DePauw University
S&P GLOBAL Award for Economic and Business reporting
Endowed by S&P Global; presented by David Guarino, Head of External Communications, S&P Global

Madison is the editor-in-chief of The DePauw, the university’s student-run newspaper. A college senior, she traveled to Jerusalem last summer to intern at The Media Line, an independent Middle East news organization.  In her essay, she wrote about Hanna Bohman, a former Canadian model who joined the Kurdish Women’s Defense Unit that was fighting ISIS in northern Syria. She also covered homicides in the nation’s capital as an intern for DC Witness.

Yifan Yu
New York University
JERRY FLINT FELLOWSHIP FOR INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS REPORTING
Endowed by family and friends; presented by Kate McLeod, Jerry’s wife and Joe Flint, his son

Yifan had already traveled to or worked in 20 different countries before entering the business and economic reporting program at NYU to pursue her goal of covering international business. In her essay, she described how Chinese start-ups claim to be engaged in the sharing economy for the sole purpose of attracting new capital.  A Chinese national, she has a degree in journalism from Nanjing University. Yifan’s next stop is Debtwire where she will cover lending.


Joebill Muñoz
UC-Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism
THE WALTER & BETSY CRONKITE SCHOLARSHIP
Funded by Daimler and Supported by CBS News and friends; presented by Jeff Glor, Anchor, CBS Evening News with Jeff Glor

As an undergrad at Texas A&M, JoeBill directed live sports broadcasts, a path that led him to documentary filmmaking. Named for the two men credited with securing his family’s U.S. citizenship (his father’s first employer and Bill Clinton), JoeBill wrote about migrants who perished crossing the Yuma Desert and the physical and imaginary borders that harsh environments pose.  Fluent in Spanish, he has an OPC Foundation fellowship with the Associated Press in Mexico City.


Claire Molloy
CUNY Graduate School of Journalism
NATHAN S. BIENSTOCK MEMORIAL SCHOLARSHIP
Endowed by the Richard Leibner and Carole Cooper Family Foundation; presented by Steve Sadicario, United Talent Agency

A video journalist, Claire began her career in the film industry learning all aspects of production before moving on to create, whenever possible, her own documentaries. Her focus now is Southeast Asia, where she interned last summer in Jakarta for VICE Indonesia. While there she met Bahadori, the subject of her essay and one of 14,000 Afghan refugees waiting for resettlement somewhere else in the world. Claire is a graduate of Skidmore College.


CongCong Daphne Zhang
Columbia Graduate School of Journalism
THE FRITZ BEEBE FELLOWSHIP
Endowed by Anne and Larry Martz; Endowed by Anne and Larry Martz; presented by Larry and Anne Martz

Having already worked for the Washington Post and Reuters in China, CongCong now has an OPC Foundation fellowship with the Wall Street Journal in London. A graduate of the University of Washington, she told the story of Li Wei, one of a hundred thousand or more Chinese children who had gone missing in the previous four decades, and his unlikely 20-year reunion with his mother who never gave up searching for her son.

Hiba Dlewati
Columbia Graduate School of Journalism
SALLY JACOBSEN FELLOWSHIP
Endowed by family and friends; presented by Sally’s husband, Patrick Oster

Born in Michigan but raised in Syria, Hiba had her medical education in Damascus cut short by the Syrian war and finished her B.A. degree at the University of Michigan in Flint. As a fixer and reporter in the Middle East, she focused most often on the Syrian diaspora and wrote in her essay about shady brokers who booked refugees on rickety ships for travel from Turkey to Greece. A dual Syrian-American citizen, she has an OPC Foundation fellowship in the Associated Press bureau in Beirut.